Atrocity in Anaheim: Police Shoot Unarmed Man, Let Him Bleed to Death — Then Attack Protesters

One day after the Movie Theater Massacre in Aurora, Colorado, police in Anaheim, California shot a fleeing man in the head, allowed him to die while shooing away eyewitnesses — and then compounded the atrocity by calling in a riot squad that assaulted neighborhood protesters with rubber bullets, pepper rounds, and an attack dog.

Manuel “Stomper” Diaz was one of three young men who fled when approached by officers the afternoon of July 21. Although he was unarmed, Diaz was shot in the head. Private video of the aftermath of the shooting shows officers ignoring the mortally wounded Diaz — who, as one frantic witness shouted, was still alive — while they push back eyewitness and string up crime-scene tape. None of the officers rendered medical aid, and no effort was made to contact paramedics.

Diaz was the seventh resident of the neighborhood to be killed by police this year. That fact, coupled with the aggressive indifference displayed by the police, inspired a small spontaneous protest — which, in turn, prompted the predictable over-reaction by the police department.

Cell phone video of the police assault shows a wall of officers in riot gear directing “non-lethal” fire at a group of unarmed and terrified civilians — including several small children, who were shielded by a man who appeared to be their father. Another officer unleashed a police dog, which immediately attacked a stroller containing an infant. A bystander who interposed himself — and was mauled by the dog for doing so — probably saved the child’s life.

Local news accounts, which retailed the department’s version of events, described the crowd as “unruly” and the protest as a “near-riot” in which angry citizens “encircled” the officers and “began throwing things, including bottles and possibly rocks, at them,” in the words of a Los Angeles Times report.The police also claimed that “several fires” had been started in trashcans. None of those claims have been been corroborated by video evidence or eyewitnesses. Nor have the police explained why the police approached Diaz and the other two young men, or why the unarmed Diaz was shot in the head.

Although they were studiously unconcerned for the live of Diaz, the police were very concerned about information management: Their initial reaction to the shooting was to push back potential witnesses — especially those carrying cell phones and other cameras — away from the victim. Following the assault on the protesters, the police offered to buy videos taken by witnesses. To their considerable credit, neighborhood residents did what they could to document the incident, and resisted police efforts to bribe and intimidate them.

In the wake of the Aurora massacre, the public has been encouraged to believe that because of private gun ownership, every public gathering place can be transformed into the scene of a massacre. The Anaheim police rampage illustrates how quickly the State’s armed enforcement caste — which, according to “gun control” activists, should have a monopoly on firearms — can turn any neighborhood into an urban war zone.